Our embarrassing inability to build what we needed, including submarines

When I was at the Pentagon doing arms control, I saw our embarrassing and dangerous inability to build what we needed, including subs.

See: https://twitter.com/SaraLSirota/status/1767284987026370966

Like ⅔ of our military contracts, most of the Columbia class sub-production is sole-sourced. No competition. No alternative contractor if the supplier fails. 

We are in this position because our politicians let our entire defense industry consolidate into a few goliaths who now run the show. These monopolists name their price, they name their timeline, and they change both at will because even the Pentagon has no leverage against their monopoly positions. We ran into the same thing when I was on the Joint Staff doing arms control and we were looking to buy new aircraft for the then Open Skies Treaty. 

This didn’t just happen. It was by design. We put financiers in charge of everything and this is their end state. Grifting off monopoly rents and the taxpayer - warfighter and national security be damned. I was so frustrated by it at the Pentagon that I wrote about this transformation of our production and innovation capacity in the American Conservative while I was still on active duty.

America’s Monopoly Crisis Hits the Military: theamericanconservative.com/americas-monopoly-crisis-hits-the-military/ 

Finance-driven CEOs of massive companies control much of our national security decisions. And these are some of the least patriotic and most anti-worker people in the country! You don't have to take my word for it. Former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond summarized their attitude best: “I’m not a U.S. company and I don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the U.S.”

We can’t even make anything anymore. When we were at the Pentagon, we found we couldn't make a single major weapon system without inputs from China. Because the CEOs had offshored it all.

New Inkstick datasets detail anti-labor trends at top Pentagon contractors: inkstickmedia.com/union-strength-dwindles-at-top-defense-contractors/

US military too reliant on foreign-made equipment: pcworld.com/article/451743/study-us-military-too-reliant-on-foreignmade-equipment.html 

This thinking has even corrupted the way our country thinks about how we defend ourselves and what’s actually important to defend. Just look at our recent airstrikes in the Middle East. We’ve been spending huge sums of tax dollars and putting American soldiers and seamen in harm's way for years. What’s it gotten us?

Nothing in Afghanistan. “Regional stability” for dictators who’d turn on us at a moment’s notice if it was convenient, secure trade routes for foreign adversaries and multinational outsourcers, and an excuse for the military to use up equipment and resources that can then be wastefully (but profitably) replaced by only a handful of defense contractors who are also doing everything in their power to prevent American workers from getting their hands on any of the money.

Defense Contractors Benefited From Nearly Half of $14 Trillion Spent for Afghan War: newsweek.com/defense-contractors-benefited-nearly-half-14-trillion-spent-afghan-war-study-1628485 

The financiers who run these giants use their monopoly position to extract wealth from all of us and transfer it to their shareholders. They use their monopoly position to convert national security risk to all of us into profit for their shareholders. It's not capitalism, it's just another cartel. And until we meet strength with strength, they will continue to rob us.

We have to break up Big Defense and on-shore our defense supply chains.

Unfortunately, the members of Congress who oversee the defense industry aren't just bought off by campaign donations, they are bought into the scheme. Politicians from both parties have stock portfolios flush with stock in these companies.

That’s why we need to abolish corporate PACs (and ACTUALLY overturn Citizens United) and criminalize stock ownership for members of Congress.

And just like Missouri’s own Harry Truman understood when he was just a U.S. Senator during World War II, we also need to safeguard American taxpayers from the government and corporate corruption taking place in our defense industry.

Harry Truman and the Investigation of Waste, Fraud, & Abuse in World War II: levin-center.org/harry-truman-and-the-investigation-of-waste-fraud-abuse-in-world-war-ii/ 

That will take tough action from Congress, the DoJ, the FTC, and more — and it will take REQUIRING action to truly happen.

So in the U.S. Senate, I’ll introduce comprehensive and robust legislation to bar defense contractors from electoral politics, ban former DoD officials from lobbying on behalf of the defense industry, and formally outlaw war profiteering. And I’ll include the tools enforcers will need to enforce the rules and require regular Congressional oversight to make sure that enforcement becomes a reality. 

It’s time to make our national security the focus of America’s defense industry — not corporate profits.

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